


Maybe That's What Happens When a Volcano Meets a Tornado

by sullacat



Series: Taking Chances [7]
Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-20
Updated: 2011-06-20
Packaged: 2017-10-20 14:19:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sullacat/pseuds/sullacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not always going to be wine and roses. Some days will be worse than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe That's What Happens When a Volcano Meets a Tornado

**Author's Note:**

> for my Schmoop Bingo card-first fight - making up. These characters are not mine, no infringement intended.

"Okay, what's going on?" Jim headed onto the bridge, irritation written all over his face as he headed toward his chair, turning it to face Uhura. "I thought this visit down there was supposed to be routine." Some medical mission to assist the local doctors with vaccinating the populace against an outbreak of plague. Before anyone knew it, the Enterprise crew seemed to be in the middle of a centuries-old cultural feud, with no one sure who was the hell was in charge anymore.

"The fatality rate began increasing right after daybreak on the planet," Uhura answered, listening to the communication from the planet's surface. "They're sealing the city walls, quarantining the entire colony. Pretty soon no one will be allowed in or off the planet, even if they test negative for plague."

A moment later, Uhura called out, "Incoming message, Captain."

"On screen," Jim replied, turning to face the forward view screen. "Governor," he said. "What's happening down there?"

"The insurgents have picked this time to attack the capital," the older man answered ruefully. "I'm afraid that one of their demands is that your people leave the planet. I appreciate the help you've given us so far, but I must insist, for their safety, that you all leave immediately."

 _Shit._ The view screen went black, and Jim turned in his chair, reaching for the communication controls. "Enterprise to McCoy - Bones, where are you?" There was no answer. "Enterprise to anyone on the away team, what is your location."

"McCoy here," came a tired voice out of the speakers. "We're at the clinic at the city center."

"Time to get out," Jim told him. "They're locking the planet down, things are looking bad."

"I know they're bad," Bones' voice snapped back at him. "People are dropping like flies, never seen so many people get sick so fast. Nothing we're doing is working..." Nyota's head lifted, looked over at Jim, both surprised at the McCoy's tone. There was a pause, and just when Jim was about to ask if he was okay, Bones continued. "I'll send everyone else, but I'm not done, just need a couple more hours and we might have a viable vaccine for this thing, damn virus mutating so fast."

"Sorry, Doc," Jim shook his head, even though he knew Bones couldn't see it. "Everyone out means you too. Official request from their high council - we're out of here."

Another pause. "Never seen anything like it, Jim. Just give me a few more hours."

"No, you leave with the others. We'll talk once you're back on board." It was a few seconds before Jim heard a quiet affirmative from the other side. He could practically see the look on Bones' face right now, knew how much he hated leaving people when they needed his help - but this was bigger than all of them. People were dying down there and he couldn't risk losing his CMO.

Didn't want to think about losing Bones. Besides, surely he had enough data to accomplish the work up here. Man was a genius with that sort of thing, Bones would have some sort of vaccine for them soon. "Kirk to Transporter room - Scotty, you there?"

"Aye, Captain. What can I do fer ya?"

"Find the away team and beam them to Sickbay's decontamination area. I'm on my way." Jim was out of his chair and out the door before he even noticed Spock following him.

Walking down the hall, Jim heard a beep at his side. "Captain," Scotty's voice transmitted though the air. "They've got some sort of disruptor thrown up all around the planet. The medical staff will have to get to a designated transport area and contact me before I can get them back."

 _Shit._ As the doors to Sickbay opened, Jim strode in, waving a hand to get M'Benga's attention. "Make it happen, Mr. Scott. Lock on them the moment you find their pattern and get them off that planet." Looking at up at Geoff, he asked, "Have you been following what's going on?"

"Mortality rate hit fifty percent this morning," the doctor replied, "and they put a lock on the door. 'Bout time," he added, turning back toward the rear of Sickbay, leading the captain toward a cordoned off area behind a sonic shield. "We've got decontamination area ready for them when they get here."

"Captain." Jim turned around, so lost in thought he missed Spock standing at parade rest behind him. "The situation on the planet is volatile. You should be on the bridge."

"I can be there in four minutes if they need me," he replied coolly, secure in that knowledge. He'd timed it once, winning a bet from McCoy that involved blindfolds.

"Their political structure is not stable," Spock kept speaking, as if Jim hadn't said anything. "This crisis can only hasten the inevitable power shift that we had been trying to avert."

Spock's datapadd beeped, and he looked down, reading. "Governor Rokusa is dead."

"Plague?"

Spock shook his head. "Coup."

 _Fuck._ Things had just gone from bad to worse. "Scotty, where are they?"

"I've got 'em, Captain? Um, wait-"

But before Scotty could finish the sentence, the away team beamed back from the surface and into Sickbay. Jim closed his communicator and walked toward the curtained area. He could see their silhouettes, bodies being sonically scrubbed and disinfected. One by one they exited the decontamination bay.

At least, most of the away team exited the decontamination bay. "Where's Doctor McCoy?" Jim asked, not seeing Bones anywhere.

The medic closest to Jim hesitated, then spoke, her eyes not meeting the captain's concerned gaze. "He's still at the clinic. We couldn't get him to leave, sir."

"What do you mean, you couldn't-" Then it hit him. Bones was still on the planet.

Bones disobeyed his direct order.

 _Bones was still on the planet._

 

 

Without another word, Jim turned and left, heading out the door, still oblivious to the Vulcan tailing behind him several paces. Spock didn't approach Jim until they entered the transporter bay, where Jim headed to one of the transporter pads. "I need to get down to the surface," he ordered the officer minding the control panel.

Then Spock stepped up next to him. "I would not advise that, Captain."

"Get off the fucking pad, Spock, unless you plan on beaming down with me." Jim looked back at him a cold rage in his eyes. He couldn't remember the last time he was so scared or so angry.

"Captain," Spock repeated, his voice louder this time. "It is not your place to go fetch our Medical Officer. The captain cannot take that risk." Long fingers on Jim's shoulders, Spock used his strength to gently but firmly shift Jim off the transporter pad. Dark eyes met blue with a hint of human understanding. "I shall return with him soon."

"One piece, unconscious if you have to. Be careful," Jim muttered as he stormed out of the room, toward the bridge. Time to get to the bottom of this shit.

 

 

An hour later Jim got the message - they were back on board. He'd spent the time trying to figure out what was going on down on the planet, decipher what clan was in charge now, and find out what might be happening to Bones. It almost kept his mind occupied off the two thoughts burning in the back of his head... the idea that Bones had disregarded his direct order bothered him almost as much as the idea that Bones had been down there, on that planet where people were dying.

He flew to Sickbay as fast as he could, but found his path blocked up one of the other physicians. "Give us a minute to work on him, Captain," M'Benga told Jim, one arm extended.

Jim's stomach dropped. "What's wrong?"

"Just want to make sure that everything is clean in his system. He's running a fever," Geoff explained, Jim's face paling at the news. "This doesn't mean that he's sick, could be one of a number of things. But we want to watch him closely for a just a bit before we let anyone see him."

Jim nodded, knowing that was the smart thing to do - and his crew was nothing if not brilliant... but- this wasn't just another crew member ill. This was his Bones.

Not that anyone knew about them. Not many, at any rate, Jim hoped. Impossible to keep it completely secret, but they were discreet. Or thought they were. "I'll be in his office, waiting."

The doors to McCoy's office slid open automatically for Jim, the thought of that warming his heart even as he felt it breaking inside him. Bones disobeyed his order. Put himself in danger, put Spock in danger, kept them involved in planetary politics where it appeared they weren't wanted.

That wasn't small shit - people had been court-martialed for less, dis-commendation at the very least.

And he had a fever... what if he was sick? Sitting down at Bones' desk, Jim closed his eyes and smelled. Bones came to Jim's room every night smelling like this room. He recognized the photograph of Joanna on his bookshelf, walls covered with the strange collection of old medical instruments that the doctor liked to pick up whenever he ran across them. Always made Jim laugh to see Bones so excited about the rusty pieces of metal. Right now, though, nothing seemed funny.

"Captain?" Jim's eyes opened up. "He's in the isolation room, if you want to see him."

"What's wrong?"

Geoff swallowed, sighed as he leaned against the doorway. "He's got the bug. Not too bad," he added quickly at the look on Jim's face, "nothing that's gonna keep him down for long. The vaccine is working just fine in his system but we talked and decided it wasn't worth even the chance he might infect anyone else."

"I want to talk to him," Jim said, standing.

"Yeah," Geoff nodded, turning back toward Sickbay. "I think he wants to talk to you, too."

 

 

In the end, though, there were remarkably few words spoken. Jim walked in front of the isolation screen, watching for a moment as Bones sat at a desk in a small, plain-looking room, staring off at the wall. Jim didn't trust his words, not quite yet. He loved that man in there, he knew that now, but fuck - he was angry. More than angry. Maybe this 'whatever' it was between them wasn't going to work out, not if they had to deal with situations like this. He was captain - that meant that when he gave an order, Bones needed to listen.

Fuck... Jim shifted from one foot to the other, the small movement catching McCoy's attention. He looked up at Jim, his eyes flashed something dark, sad... and angry. Fuck, Bones was mad at _him_.

Several moments passed before Jim broke the silence. "How long?"

"Ten, twelve hours, less if the fever dissipates." Bones stood, walked toward the sonic barrier that separated them. Then his face changed, from sad to frustrated. "Why?" he asked, looking Jim straight in the eyes.

Jim didn't break the gaze. "I ordered you back on board."

"People are dying, Jim."

"You don't think I know that?" Jim took a step closer, lowered his voice. "You think I don't know what that's like? Me, Bones, I've been there. But I can't let you, or anyone else, put this ship in jeopardy like that." Jim silenced the small voice in his head that reminded him that he'd led the ship into danger on more than one occasion.

But maybe Bones heard that small voice in Jim's head. "You're a fucking hypocrite," he told Jim, then turned and walked to the other side of the room, as far from Jim as he could get.

"That's Captain to you," Jim spat back. "And if you don't like it, you know where the shuttles are." The words were out of his mouth before he even thought them through, but once they were out, he couldn't take them back.

And right now, as he stormed out of Sickbay and back toward his office, he didn't want to take them back. He had never meant anything more.

 

 

The twelve hours in isolation ended up being much longer. Jim grimly finished his day and headed to his room without any word from Sickbay or Bones, other than no change in his condition. No one who came across him in his office or in the corridors spoke to him -something on his face discouraged small talk.

Hitting the heavy bag in the gym that evening didn't help. Neither did staring out the windows of the Observation Deck. Jim ate dinner alone, trying to get his mind wrapped around what had happened that day.

It had been a long time since Jim had felt this... _abandoned_ , the only way he could categorize his feelings right now. Ever since they'd embarked on this mission, things had been going so good between him and Bones. Really good. He'd never felt closer to anyone in his life, and for the first time, Jim felt like the person sleeping in his arms really cared about him. Yeah, they had their little spats, but it wasn't any different from before, when they'd been friends.

But this - this was big. Last time he felt this alone he was seventeen and staring at a Starfleet communique notifying him about his mother's death, last link with any family completely gone. Even that day on the bridge, Spock tossing him around like a rag doll, Bones and the others standing there and watching - that had felt terrible. Awful. But it wasn't like this.

Maybe this is what relationships did to you. Made you vulnerable. Weak. Jim didn't like that, the idea that his happiness was dependent on another person. But fuck, what they had together - when it was good, it was so fucking good.

Did that mean when it was bad, it was going to be like this? Feeling like his heart was being ripped out and torn from of his chest?

Voices crept around his head. Bones didn't really respect him, never would. Jim would always be _that kid_. Maybe Jim was just someone to fill in the time until Bones found someone better. Better captain. Better partner.

One day Bones would leave him, like everyone else did. Didn't help that Jim practically invited him off the ship. Standing in the shower, Jim let the hot water run over his head. _Why had he said that?_

 

Sleep didn't come easily that night, as he tossed in his bed, staring up in the dark.

The communicator beeped twice and blinked, indicating a text message. Jim reached over to the side table next to his bed, bleary eyes reading the message from Sickbay. 0330: McCoy released.

Jim sat up in bed, sheets pooling at his bare waist. "Computer, where is Leonard McCoy?"

 _"Leonard McCoy is in the corridor on level five."_

Grabbing some track pants, Jim pulled them on before heading to his door, watching it slide open as he approached. There was Bones, sitting on the ground opposite of his door. He was wearing the clothes he'd been in the day before, that drab medical garb they dressed all the patients in.

Hazel eyes looked up from a tired face. _Did you mean what you said?_

Jim sighed, dropped the mask and exposed the fear that he'd been holding in all day. Taking two steps into the corridor, he reached down and held out his hand. _Of course not, never leaving you. Never let you leave me._ Pulling Bones to his feet, they watched each others face carefully.

Nothing was settled between them... but maybe it wasn't the sort of situation that ever would be settled. Jim wasn't going to stop going boldly, but he knew Bones was going to do what he needed to do to save lives. He wasn't just a doctor, he was the best there was in the fleet.

That's why Jim snagged him for his CMO.

That's why he loved him.

Jim lifted a hand to Bones' face, touching the back of his hand to Bones' forehead, as if to check for fever. _I understand why you did it. Don't like it, but I know why..._ "You okay?"

Bones just nodded. "Just tired." _And I'm sorry._ "Can I come in?"

Jim stepped aside, watching as Bones passed into his quarters. It was as if he could see their problems being left outside, like a pair of muddy shoes on the porch. Outside of this room, they were Captain and Doctor,and those problems would always be there, careful terrain they would have to navigate again and again. Inside, they were just Jim and Bones, two men getting ready to spend a few precious hours in each others arms before morning.

Everything outside could wait.


End file.
